Tibetan tale of two rival teenage
lamas By Julian Gearing
This
is the bizarre tale of two competing 14-year-old Tibetan
lamas, pawns in China's efforts to dominate Tibet and
suppress dissent. One has been recognized and
"installed" by China, the other recognized by the
Tibetan thorn in Beijing's side, the Dalai Lama, revered
worldwide as Tibet's paramount spiritual leader. Which
teenager is the real reincarnated Panchen Lama, the
Great Scholar, the No 2 figure in Tibetan Buddhism who
will help choose the next Dalai Lama? It really doesn't
matter, because China's boy will prevail.
But
the machinations involving the controversy illuminate
the gulf in Tibet between many Tibetans and the dominant
Han Chinese. The dispute toys with the lives of two
youths and threatens the future of the Dalai Lama
himself, now 68. The Panchen Lama, China's anointed
figurehead, will be instrumental in choosing his
successor.
News developments have catapulted the
ongoing story - dating back to 1995 - into prominence.
China recently blocked a US-backed United Nations Human
Rights Commission resolution citing abuses in Tibet and
Xinjiang. And Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports that
Beijing's Panchen choice is so unpopular throughout
Tibet - and in key influential monasteries - that
Beijing has both stepped up campaigns and initiated new
indoctrination in order to persuade Tibetan lamas that
Beijing's boy is their man, the No 2 figure in Tibetan
Buddhism.
This is a tortured tale of kidnapping,
reincarnation, oracles and divination, a name drawn from
a sacred golden urn, and of politics and power, pure and
simple - whatever it takes to control the strategic
region of Tibet and bend its many obdurate Buddhists to
Beijing's will. It's a tale of the implacably secular
and the determinedly religious and spiritual.
One boy is promoted by Beijing, the other by the
Dalai Lama, to become the next Panchen Lama, the 11th
Panchen, most influential Tibetan after the Dalai Lama.
In fact, there is no preeminent figure throughout
Tibetan Buddhism - the Dalai Lama himself is not the top
figure recognized by all branches and schools; each
lineage has its own highest religious leader. In the
Gelukpa lineage, the Panchen comes after the Dalai Lama.
The Panchen typically plays a major role in
selecting the next Dalai Lama, and the succession will
have important implications for China's handling of the
Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetans throughout China,
as well as Beijing's standing in the international
human-rights community. The 10th Panchen Lama died in
1989.
The Dalai Lama's choice, supported by most
Tibetans, is believed to be under house arrest in
Beijing. Because he hasn't appeared and because there is
no proof of his well-being, some believe he is dead.
Others say the death of a preeminent Tibetan religious
figure, revered by many, would cause tremendous blowback
for China's efforts in Tibet, and say he is just being
kept conveniently quiet and under wraps.
Most
Tibetans reject China's anointed Panchen The
resistance in Tibet to Beijing's successor, the son of a
Tibetan Communist Party official, is so widespread that
Chinese authorities are conducting a systematic
indoctrination campaign at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, the
Panchen Lama's traditional seat, aimed at compelling
Tibetan monks to accept the boy anointed by Beijing, RFA
reported on April 9 from Kathmandu. The campaign started
back in 1998 and still is being conducted by Chinese
officials twice a week, RFA sources said. China wants
the monks to accept that their teenage lama is the
authentic reincarnation of the Panchen Lama and that in
finding him Beijing followed all the traditional
selection procedures, including drawing his name from a
gold-plated urn, containing the names of others. The urn
itself is half a meter high and kept under lock and key
by trusted Beijing lieutenants at a secret location in
Lhasa.
The boys, both about 14, are said to live
in seclusion in Beijing. Critics say the Dalai Lama's
choice, Gendun Choekyi Nyima, who was kidnapped by
Beijing from Tibet when he was only six, may even be
dead, since he is never seen; at the very least, he is
under house arrest with his family, who also was
abducted in 1995, according to Tibetan sources. He is
"happy", "enjoys his studies", and his seclusion is
requested by his family, according to Chinese
authorities, who say he must be protected from
"kidnapping" by Tibetans. China, however, has not
produced any pictures to confirm that the boy is alive
and well.
The Dalai Lama once called him "the
world's youngest political prisoner", and because the
Dalai Lama supports him he is the overwhelming choice of
Tibetans, most of whom spurn Beijing's hand-picked
Panchen.
Tibetan Internet websites display
photos of a small boy staring forlornly into the camera,
and ask, after the manner of missing children in the
West: "Have you seen this boy?" This is the only
published image of the young captive , though the image
is occasionally dolled up in ceremonial robes. In the
shops and offices of the Tibetan exile community in
Dharamsala in northern India, "Free the Panchen Lama"
stickers and posters abound, along with others calling
for a "Free Tibet".
This young prisoner, Gendun
Choekyi Nyima, is the subject of a major international
campaign in which foreign politicians call for his
release and the United Nations asks to be given access
to visit the boy. Chinese authorities stonewall all
requests and say the family wants the boy to remain out
of the public spotlight.
The other boy, Gyaltsen
Norbu, China's anointed, also is seldom seen, and he too
is closely guarded and believed to be in Beijing. He
made two high-profile, high-security visits to Tibet,
the latest last August, when he was accompanied by
truckloads of soldiers for his protection. Most Tibetans
consider him an illegitimate candidate; he was received
with indifference by a population that is not permitted
to dissent.
Tibetans see new Chinese
'Cultural Revolution' The dispute over the next
Panchen Lama is unfolding against the backdrop of what
Tibetans call a "new Chinese cultural revolution", 45
years after the Chinese crushed the Lhasa Uprising in
1959 and the Dalai Lama fled into exile. China's latest
"patriotic campaign" seeks to stamp out dissent and
curtail religious freedom - seen as challenging Chinese
authority - but it is more subtle and sophisticated than
the brutal 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.
The
authorities have not banned spinning prayer wheels and
personal holy pilgrimages, though such "feudal
practices" are looked down upon. Beijing, however, is
tightening the screws in its widening crackdown on
"unpatriotic" Tibetans through arrests, torture and
execution and through intimidation officially justified
as part of an "anti-terrorism" drive, according to
Thubten Samphel, spokesman for the Tibetan exile
government in Dharamsala. Possession of the Dalai Lama's
photos is out, actually forbidden, and Tibetan Buddhist
monks increasingly are finding their activities, whether
teaching or Buddhist initiations, broken up and
repressed. The crackdown also is extending to Tibetans
outside Tibet in neighboring Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai.
Back to the young lamas. Critics say the Chinese
authorities, who are officially atheist, have hijacked
Tibetan Buddhism's sacred tradition of recognizing the
reincarnations of tulku, high lamas believed to
be bodhisattvas, or enlightened beings. By
kidnapping the Dalai Lama's boy and substituting their
own, the son of a communist official, the Chinese
authorities appear to be winning by default.
The
two boys are pawns in a political game with serious
implications for the state of Buddhism in Tibet and
Tibetan identity. Since the Panchen Lama traditionally
helps find the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama after he
dies, China says it plans to recognize its own Dalai
Lama after the current incarnation passes away.
Ancient system seeks 'reincarnated' lamas Supporters of the Dalai Lama and his choice for
Panchen Lama say Beijing is undermining the ancient
system of finding high Tibetan lamas, a process China
has dismissed as a remnant of Tibet's dark, feudal past.
But it is not the first time. Nor have the Tibetans been
completely innocent in manipulating young boys' lives
for political gain.
The saga of the Panchen Lama
is arguably the highest-profile instance (some would say
the controversy involving two Tibetan boys aspiring to
the Tibetan Karmapa throne in Sikkim is even more
prominent) of the recognition process of high lamas
going awry. This sacred practice is having a mixed ride
in the Chinese-held territory of Tibet (Beijing argues
that Tibet historically has been part of China), in the
modern world of Tibetan exiles and among Western
practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism.
When
Hollywood movie tough-guy Steven Seagal took on a new
role in 1997 as the self-styled reincarnation of
Chungdrag Dorje, a 17th-century Tibetan saint, many
observers were aghast. Seagal took his recognition by a
leading Tibetan lama seriously, rejecting accusations
that the title was bestowed after he made donations to
the lama's center in the United States.
As
practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism come to terms with the
modern world and its critical, skeptical mindset - even
as Tibetan lamas are popping up, reincarnated as a woman
from Brooklyn, New York, and as a boy from Spain - the
process of recognition and the choices of high lamas
such as the Panchen have come under scrutiny. For
devotees, the choice of the boy is highly significant as
the young lama is viewed as the "genuine" reincarnation
of his predecessor with special powers and is in himself
an object of worship.
For those who don't
believe in reincarnation, the Tibetan process of finding
the reincarnation of a high lama appears to be a mix of
superstition, guesswork and luck. When a Tibetan oracle
falls into a trance or a lama peers into a lake
searching for signs to indicate the identity and
whereabouts of a tulku - a person on the brink of
enlightenment but who chooses to return to help others
along that path - credulity is strained to the extreme.
Skeptics view this as the stuff of Hollywood, not real
life: the stories of young boys recognizing their
possessions from a previous life, confidently stating
they are a high lama, or displaying at the age of five
high spiritual qualities of their past lives.
Yet followers of Tibetan Buddhism argue that
skeptics cannot dismiss the special qualities exhibited
by the best of these high lamas. Those who knew the late
16th Karmapa, for example, speak of his wisdom, charisma
and compassion. And the current Dalai Lama, a Nobel
Peace Prize laureate, gets rave reviews from all but the
most cynical of journalists and comments that there is
"something special" about the man. Tibetans know that
already. He is their spiritual leader and they consider
him the 14th reincarnation of a lama born in the 14th
century, considered a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara,
the bodhisattva of compassion.
Previous lives vs nature and
nurture How much of these "special qualities" are
due to"previous lives", nature, nurture or rigorous
Buddhist training is open to debate. Buddhists
understand that life is a succession of deaths and
rebirths and the aim of Buddhist practice is to break
the cycle and achieve enlightenment. Under Tibetan
Buddhism, which follows the Mahayana Path, the "Great
Vehicle" of Buddhism, the way of altruism, is said truly
to find its practical form. After Buddhism took hold in
Tibet in the 7th century and developed, the Tibetans
took it one step further than anyone else - they took to
institutionalizing reincarnation by recognizing reborn
high lamas.
This process dates back to the 14th
century when the third Karmapa, leader of the Karma
Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, chose this method -
recognizing reborn high lamas - as a preferable
alternative to appointment or recognition of family
dynasties. The Dalai Lama eventually adopted the
practice and went on to become the temporal and
spiritual head of Tibet.
Tulku, such as
the Panchen Lama and Dalai Lama, are said to stand on
the brink of enlightenment but choose to come back to
help others, able to choose when and where they will be
reborn. Over the centuries, Tibetan Buddhists have
delved deep into this process of death and rebirth. The
famous 8th-century work The Tibetan Book of the
Dead discusses this transition in depth, including
bardo, the interval between death and rebirth.
Some argue that at least 49 days in bardo
and nine months in the mother's womb must elapse before
rebirth. Yet reincarnation is anything but an exact
science, and as one Buddhist scholar points out, to take
a linear view is a mistake. The late 10th Panchen Lama
made this clear in a speech just days before he died in
January 1989. He claimed that "the seventh Dalai Lama
was born before the death of the sixth. From the point
of view of our spiritual tradition, there is no need for
a year to pass before the reincarnation is born. A
realized being can manifest himself in many forms at the
same time." As he said, "Premature and belated birth of
reincarnations is possible in Buddhism."
All
this is just as well. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the boy
staring out from the "Free the Panchen Lama" posters, is
reported to have been born in April 1989, just three
months after his predecessor, the 10th Panchen Lama,
died in mysterious circumstances on a rare visit to his
monastery in Shigatse, southern Tibet. According to
Sonam Topgyal, a member of the Tibetan government in
exile, there were indications that his death may have
resulted from foul play. Some witnesses claim that the
Panchen Lama's skin turned black, suggesting poisoning.
"Instead of ushering in a doctor at the monastery to
check the body, the Chinese authorities had one flown in
from Beijing," Topgyal said.
A political
murder of the last Panchen Lama? Whether the
death of the 10th Panchen Lama at the age of 50 was
murder or not, the Chinese authorities had been keen to
find his powerful successor. Mutual cooperation with
several Tibetan lamas who returned from exile in the
1980s to recognize young boy lamas, and Beijing's
official blessing to the recognition of the 17th
Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley, in Tibet in 1992, helped set
the stage for what was to come.
On the Dalai
Lama's side, the search for the 11th Panchen Lama
combined official dialogue with the Chinese authorities
with an undercover search. But in his premature
announcement in May 1995 of the new Panchen Lama -
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, a six-year-old from northern Tibet
- he disrupted the Chinese game plan. In an interview in
2000, Ngabo Ngawang Jigme, an official considered a
traitor by many Tibetans for signing over Tibet in the
"17-point agreement" to China in Beijing without the
Lhasa government's approval an in 1951, claimed that the
Dalai Lama committed a "grave mistake" in choosing the
boy. The former Tibetan communist official said the
Dalai Lama's recommendation could have been taken into
account, but that the process had to involve more than
one candidate.
"Straws must be drawn from the
golden urn and the center must grant approval," said
Ngabo, 90, referring to a lottery system involving a
gold-plated urn locked up in Lhasa, a method introduced
by the Chinese centuries ago but seldom used. China says
its boy was found through divination and his Panchen
Lama incarnation confirmed by oracles.
Beijing
then moved swiftly to kidnap the Dalai Lama's choice of
the next Panchen Lama and, in November 1995, held an
official ceremony to shake the urn and draw out the name
of its own "winning" candidate, Gyaltsen Norbu. The
event was televised and the young "Living Buddha"
eventually went on to meet then-Chinese president Jiang
Zemin; the boy was paraded as an example of Beijing's
openness to religion.
The Dalai Lama had taken a
gamble and lost. On several occasions over the
centuries, China has sought to play the Panchen Lama
against the Dalai Lama, since Beijing had little real
influence over the high, mountainous plateau of Tibet.
(Apart from a couple of military forays and visits of a
couple of Dalai Lamas to Beijing, China did not
physically occupied Tibet until 1950.) The two men's
relationship, as the leading lamas of the Gelukpa
school, began as a close partnership when in the 17th
century, the fifth Dalai Lama declared his tutor the
Panchen Lama or "Great Scholar" Lama. Over the centuries
they occasionally took turns in recognizing each other's
reincarnations. But with the Panchen Lama's monastery in
Shigatse and the Dalai Lama's base in Lhasa, their
rivalry grew.
The 10th Panchen Lama was a
product of that tension. Dubbed the "Chinese Panchen
Lama", he is said to have rehabilitated himself in the
eyes of the Tibetans and is now said to be recognized as
the "real" reincarnation of his predecessor. Unlike the
current Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959, the
Panchen Lama remained and was used as a tool by the
Chinese. For much of his life he was viewed as loyal to
the Chinese Communist Party, but he showed his defiance
in his suffering and incarceration during the Cultural
Revolution of 1966-76.
Tangled tales of
Tibetan politics, religion The 10th Panchen Lama
was not the Dalai Lama's original choice of candidate.
Just over 50 years ago, there was a standoff between the
Chinese and the government of the Dalai Lama, not so
unlike that of today. His predecessor, the ninth Panchen
Lama, had fled to the Chinese Kuomintang-controlled area
of Qinghai in the northeast after the government in
Lhasa had tried to levy inordinately heavy taxes to
build up its pathetically equipped army. But he died
there.
His followers searched for and found a
boy they claimed was his reincarnation, a choice backed
by the Chinese, eager to spread their influence into
Tibet. But the Lhasa government and the young 14th Dalai
Lama came up with two alternative candidates, whittled
down to one, to step in as the new Panchen Lama.
Politics intervened. The Kuomintang government
fell and Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong and his
conquering forces demanded, as part of their 17-point
agreement with the Tibetan government, that their choice
of 10th Panchen Lama be accepted. The young Dalai Lama
conducted a divination, often used when there is a
dispute over choice, dropped his candidate and accepted
the Chinese choice.
The Dalai Lama's original
choice of 10th Panchen Lama is still alive. Panchen
Otrul, the "Panchen Candidate" as he was officially
designated by the Tibetan spiritual leader, leads a
quiet life in Ireland, after many years as a roving
ambassador for Tibetan Buddhism. He runs Jampa Ling
Center, a house converted into a Buddhist center.
Panchen Otrul told Asia Times Online he did not regret
not being appointed as the 10th Panchen Lama. "During
that time there was much confusion as to what was
happening. His Holiness the Dalai Lama had left to go to
the Indian border because the Chinese military had
started to invade Chamdo [in eastern Tibet]," he said.
"I also felt confused and had a lot of fear. But I have
no regrets I was not chosen."
Panchen Otrul
praises the late 10th Panchen Lama's efforts. "He
suffered a great deal during his life and he did the
very best he could to maintain the Tibetan culture and
religion," he said.
History is repeating itself
in this latest standoff between the Dalai Lama and
Beijing. "Two competing incarnations of the same lama is
not rare," said Thierry Dodin, director of the Tibet
Information Network in London. "This of course resulted
in a lot of hassle and bitterness and the link to
politics is obvious. But the Tibetans often found a
diplomatic way out by declaring both, or more,
candidates as 'authentic' when bitter fights left no
clear winner."
For now, though, the situation of
the 11th Panchen Lama is at an impasse, with the one boy
favored by Tibetans under house arrest and the other
crowned by Beijing - also closely guarded, if not under
actual house arrest - feted by Beijing but largely
spurned by Lhasa. The two have never met.
Beijing had not expected such strong public
rejection by Tibetans of its imposed Panchen Lama. By
wreaking havoc, however, in the sacred choice of the
Tibetans' second-most-important religious leader, the
Chinese authorities are still winning. The stage is
being set for the death of the current Dalai Lama,
signifying a time of great uncertainty for the Tibetans.
Then the Panchen Lama - clearly Beijing's man - will
fulfill his roll in selecting the next Dalai Lama,
removing a thorn in Beijing's side. Out will come the
golden urn and it will be shaken for the choice of the
next Dalai Lama. For China, the fix appears to be in.
Julian
Gearing has covered conflicts, politics and religion
in Asia for more than two decades. He can be reached
atjulian_gearing@yahoo.com.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
